Le Merveilleux

• servings: 8
• active time: 30 minutes
• total time: 7 hours (mostly fridge)

Ingredients

Meringue:

130 g egg whites (roughly 4 large eggs)

130 g sugar

130 g powdered sugar

Pinch of salt

Mascarpone Whipped Cream:

500 ml heavy cream

100 g mascarpone cheese

30 g powdered sugar

10 g instant coffee powder / espresso powder

Exterior:

20 g cocoa powder

20 g sugar

100 g dark chocolate shavings (many ways to make these)

Directions

Start by making the meringue. Preheat the oven to 210 F. Draw two 7 in circles on parchment paper with a pencil. Turn the parchment over so the pencil side is down, and place it on a baking sheet.

Add the egg whites with a pinch of salt into a large bowl. Beat the eggs at medium-high speed for about 3-4 minutes. Then, switch the mixer speed to high and add the sugar. Whisk until sugar dissolves and the mixture forms stiff peaks. Add the powdered sugar and gently mix with a spatula.

Add the whipped egg mixture to a pastry bag (or a plastic bag with a corner cut out), and draw two spirals in the parchment paper circles, starting in the middle. The shape is pretty, but what really matters here is getting the mixture evenly split between the two circles. Flatten out the tops with a spatula, then bake in the oven for about 2 hours (try not to open the door during the bake or they may deflate). Once finished, let them cool completely to room temperature before proceeding, or they’ll melt the whipped cream mixture.

For the whipped cream mixture, add the cold heavy cream, cold mascarpone, sugar, and powdered coffee into a large bowl and whisk on medium-high speed until everything is well combined and stiff peaks form.

To assemble the cake, first place the meringue layer on where you’ll be serving the cake. Then, spread a layer of the whipped cream mixture on top. How much you add doesn’t really matter, but try to think about using a bit under ½ of the total mixture. Smooth out the top, then place the second meringue layer.

Add another layer of the cream mixture to the top of the cake, then add the rest around the side. Use a spatula to smooth things around so that no meringue is showing and the layers are as even as reasonably possible. (Look at some videos online if you want to do more interesting designs with a piping bag). Try to work relatively quickly here so that the cream mixture doesn’t start melting into the meringue.

Cover the surfaces and sides of the cake with the chocolate shavings, then sprinkle the entire cake with the sugar and cocoa powder. Do what you think works best here and be prepared for a bit of mess!

Refrigerate the entire assembled cake for at least 4 hours before serving, and enjoy!

Notes

A French cake consisting of two layers of meringue sandwiches between coffee-flavored mascarpone whipped cream, and typically topped with chocolate shavings. You can find much smaller single-serving sized cakes in France, but this one is large enough to feed a few people. There are a few other variations with slightly different names with flavors like praline, and cherry. This cake manages to be very decadent while still quite light. Most of the sweetness is in the meringue layers, and the coffee cream is nicely balanced. The textural contrast is pretty good, and this is definitely something worth making!